Hugo Neu Corporation Awards San Francisco Baykeeper $75,000 Grant

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – San Francisco Baykeeper proudly announced the award of a $75,000 grant from the Hugo Neu Corporation in support of their mission to protect San Francisco Bay from pollution. The grant will be vital in propelling the organization’s new Bay Safe Industry Campaign.

"We thank Hugo Neu Corporation for recognizing with this funding the importance of Baykeeper's efforts to protect San Francisco Bay from toxic pollution," said Deb Self, San Francisco Baykeeper Executive Director. "We are extremely proud that Hugo Neu has decided that an investment in Baykeeper’s work will help make the waters of San Francisco Bay cleaner and healthier."

In awarding the grant, Hugo Neu management team members John and Wendy Neu cited Baykeeper's use of “science-based data to win pollution control improvements in order to protect the Bay's fish, other animals, and people from high concentrations of pollutants.”

Baykeeper's Bay Safe Industry Campaign, launched this year, aims to rein in toxic storm water that runs off more than 1,300 Bay Area industrial facilities. Storm water contamination is one of San Francisco Bay's most long-standing and serious pollution problems, threatening wildlife and recreationists with toxic substances that include mercury, petroleum hydrocarbons, and heavy metals.

Since launching the Bay Safe Industry Campaign six months ago, Baykeeper has secured settlement agreements with six facilities to clean up their act, with state of the art pollution controls and best management practices, as well as mitigation payments for past damage from Bay pollution.

"We have a long history of successfully cleaning up individual industrial facilities. With this campaign, Baykeeper will systematically confront San Francisco Bay's biggest polluters. The new funding from Hugo Neu will be an enormous help," said Deb Self.

Baykeeper has also worked for many years to clean up pollution from the millions of gallons of sewage spilled into the Bay each rainy season. Baykeeper's efforts have led to legally-binding agreements that require significant upgrades to the region's most polluting sewer systems, which serve 20 Bay Area cities. Year by year, these upgrades are producing progress toward a sewage-free Bay.

For more than 65 years, Hugo Neu Corporation, a New York-based private company, has been a pioneer in the scrap metal and recycling industries. The company invests its experience, skills, and resources in opportunities that support the principal values of economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Hugo Neu and the John and Wendy Neu Family Foundation have supported various Waterkeeper organizations, including NY/NJ Baykeeper on the East Coast, for more than a decade.